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Did Medieval Jewish Commentators Understand Biblical Parallelism? 463 DID MEDIEVAL JEWISH COMMENTATORS UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL PARALLELISM? 463 Jair HAAS Université Bar Ilan, Ramat Gan DID MEDIEVAL JEWISH COMMENTATORS UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL PARALLELISM? (A CRITIQUE OF ROBERT HARRIS' “DISCERNING PARALLELISM”) RÉSUMÉ Robert Harris a tenté de montrer que les commentateurs de la Bible du Nord de la France, au Moyen Âge, étaient conscients de l'existence des parallélismes bibli- ques. Cependant, l'étude de Robert Harris, loin d'écarter les conceptions habituelles que l'on trouve sur cette question et qui sont très insatisfaisantes, a contribué à les renforcer. Les doublets sémantiques, le parallélisme en escalier ainsi que d'autres phénomènes linguistiques sont catalogués comme «parallélisme» et toute connais- sance par les commentateurs de l'un de ces phénomènes est considérée d'emblée comme connaissance du parallélisme en tant que principe structurant, ce qui n'est pas la même chose. Il s'agit d'une approche anachronique qui considère comme évident ce qui en fait est à démontrer, c'est-à-dire que les commentateurs voyaient vraiment un lien entre ces différents phénomènes. Dans le fond, Harris ne parvient à montrer qu'une chose: la connaissance par les commentateurs d'une forme de parallélisme, celui de la synonymie. Pour le reste, son travail présente bien des failles, ce qui le rend peu convaincant. Harris prend souvent ses propres concep- tions pour celles des commentateurs et il se contente de résumer les travaux anté- rieurs sur le sujet au lieu de mener une analyse complète et directe des textes en question. SUMMARY Robert Harris’ study on the awareness of parallelism among the commentators of the Northern French school of exegesis contributes to further ankering common misconceptions instead of uprooting them. Diverse phenomena such as semantic doubling, staircase parallelism and more are all labeled “parallelism”, and thus any awareness towards one or more of these phenomena is automatically interpreted as awareness towards parallelism as a structuring principle that might take the form of any of these and many other phenomena. But this is an anachronistic approach that takes for granted what really needs to be proven: that the commentators saw a con- nection between the different phenomena. Furthermore, many of Harris’ arguments for the awareness of different kinds of parallelism seems to be no more than a read- Revue des études juives, 166 (3-4), juillet-décembre 2007, pp. 463-472 doi: 10.2143/REJ.166.3.2024056 0236-07_REJ07/3-4_05_Haas 463 19/12/07, 9:08 am 464 DID MEDIEVAL JEWISH COMMENTATORS UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL PARALLELISM? ing of his own views into the words of the commentators, and Harris does not suc- ceed in providing evidence for the awareness of other aspects of parallelism than the synonymous one. Several of the commentators are not dealt with on the basis of a comprehensive and original analysis of their exegesis, and in the greater part of the book Harris rests content summarizing earlier scholarship on the subject. This, also, contributes to the unconvincing nature of the study. In his recent study, Discerning Parallelism — A Study in Northern French Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis1, Robert Harris examines the awareneness of the structuring principle of Biblical poetry that in modern research has come to be known as parallelism, in the exegesis of five cen- tral commentators of the Medieval exegetical school of Northern France: Rashi, R. Yosef Kara, Rashbam, R. Eliezer of Beaugency and R. Yosef Bekhor-Shor. Harris’ declared aim is to prove wrong the opinion set forth especially by James Kugel, that the medievals had no true understanding of parallelism as a structuring principle but saw it merely as a seconding style, that is, as a simple doubling of meaning. Thus, throughout his study Harris sets out to show that many of the categories formulated by Robert Lowth in his Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrew (1753), the classic study on Biblical poetry, were indeed anticipated by the medievals, even if they did not undertake any systematic investigation of the phenomenon and their technical vocabulary, therefore, was less developed and not doing justice to their true awareness of the phenomenon. Furthermore, Harris contends that the Medieval commentators saw in parallelism a poetic device and that their comments on the existence of the phenomenon testifies to their appre- ciation of the poetic character of texts wherein it occurs2. In my opinion Harris’ treatment of the subject is unconvincing and even misleading. Having undertaken the task of writing the first full-length study on this important topic, one would expect Harris to reexamine it from a new and fresh perspective instead of, in the greater part of the book, summariz- ing earlier scholarship, and thus contributing to further ankering common misconceptions instead of uprooting them. This lack of comprehensive and original in-depth analysis is felt espe- cially in the chapter treating the key-figure of Medieval Jewish Bible ex- egesis, Rashi. Harris mentions the conclusions reached by Mayer Gruber in his impressive treatment of the Psalms commentary, that Rashi was well aware of the existence of parallelism as a rhetorical device and even uti- 1. Published by Brown Judaic Studies, Providence, Rhode Island 2004 (Henceforth: Par- allelism). 2. Above, pp. 5-13. 0236-07_REJ07/3-4_05_Haas 464 19/12/07, 9:08 am DID MEDIEVAL JEWISH COMMENTATORS UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL PARALLELISM? 465 lized it as a hermeneutical principle3, mostly without stating so explicitly terminology that later became popular in the כפל and without using the commentaries of Rashbam and others. But these important findings did not encourage Harris to undertake a similar thorough examination of the Torah- commentary, and he rests content reiterating the common view that in this commentary Rashi reveals a “lack of attention” to the subject4, while treat- ing only the few instances where Rashi relates to the subject explicitly, in- stances whose attribution to Rashi, by the way, is probably mistaken5. Such a cursory treatment of the subject hardly justifies the conclusion that Rashi’s commentaries reflect an evolving awareness of parallelism, since the Psalms commentary, according to some, was written many years after the commentary on the Torah6. Similarly, Harris mentions the claim set forth by Benjamin Gelles7 that Rashi failed to take note of the existence of parallelismus membrorum even after Menahem b. Saruk’s lengthy treat- ment of it in the very first entry of the Mahberet8, a book that influenced Rashi considerably. Having mentioned the possibility of Menahem’s influ- ence on Rashi also in this regard, one would expect a systematic study on the subject to minutely examine all the other places where awareness of parallelism is reflected in the Mahberet in order to detect a possible connec- tion between them and the commentaries of Rashi9. In the (all too short) chapter on R. Yosef Kara it is asserted that “con- trary to what might be expected” the commentaries of this important pupil of Rashi and close associate of Rashbam “do not seem to reflect an aware- 3. Mayer Gruber, Rashi’s Commentary on Psalms, Leiden 2004, pp. 150-154. Though Gruber is principally right, the specific proofs that he brings are, to the best of my judgement, not valid. On this, see my study “’Repetition of Meaning in Different Words’ in the Northern French School of Exegesis” [Hebrew], Hebrew Union College Annual 75 (2006), pp. 55-57 [Hebrew section]. 4. Parallelism, p. 42. 5. In the scientific edition of the commentary on Exodus that Menachem Cohen has pre- pared for the Mikra’ot Gedolot ‘HaKeter’, which has not yet been published in book form but can be purchased on CD rom, Cohen has reached the conclusion that the commentaries on Exodus 15:1, 6 that, according to Harris, seem to reveal an understanding of parallelism as a rhetorical device, are not originally Rashi’s. Harris discusses them in Parallelism, p. 36-40. 6. Above, p. 42. In Repetition (pp. 57-66 [Hebrew Section]) I argue that awareness of the doubling phenomena and its exegetical utility characterizes Rashi’s exegesis in general, in- cluding his commentary on the Torah. 7. Benjamin Gelles, Peshat and Derash in the Exegesis of Rashi, Leiden 1981, pp. 100- 101. 8. Page 17* in the edition of Saenz-Badillos. 9. There are, in fact, several places where Menahem’s use of the doubling principle as a hermeneutical tool is reflected in Rashi’s commentaries (See: Repetition, pp. 57-60 [Hebrew Section]). 0236-07_REJ07/3-4_05_Haas 465 19/12/07, 9:08 am 466 DID MEDIEVAL JEWISH COMMENTATORS UNDERSTAND BIBLICAL PARALLELISM? ness of parallelism”10. No comprehensive analysis of Kara’s exegesis that might yield this conclusion is presented, and Harris seems to indicate that he thus concludes only on the basis of the fact that Kara does not use the .terminology in order to indicate the existence of the phenomenon11 כפל This is in spite of the fact that in the chapters on Rashi and Rashbam it is demonstrated that such an awareness can be detected even in cases where this terminology is absent. A careful and thorough examination of Kara's exegesis might have proven wrong the overly simplistic conclusion that Kara lacked an understanding of parallelism. Maybe he did have an awaren- ,terminology, or כפל ess of the phenomenon but did not make use of the even better, maybe he knew that other commentators asserted the existence of the phenomenon but disagreed with them. These are possibilities that have to be taken into serious consideration12. With regard to the subject matter of the study, the awareness of the com- mentators towards parallelism, Harris seems to be unsuccessful in freeing himself from the anachronistic tendency of approaching the exegetes through categories known to him from modern scholarship, instead of meeting them on their own premises.
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